Friday, September 21, 2012

Korg Kronos Keyboard Workstation (2011)

Korg Kronos

Keyboard Workstation

Korg really know what they’re doing when it comes
to workstations, and their new one has been eagerly anticipated. Meet
the Kronos in our world exclusive review...

Gordon Reid

The 73‑note version of the Kronos employs the fully‑weighted RH3 keyboard found on Korg’s SV1.

When Korg released
the M3, I wondered whether this might be the company’s equivalent to the
CS80 — a great synth built on similar technology to a rare and
expensive predecessor, but refined and made affordable. However, while
its EDS (Enhanced Definition Synthesis) sound generator was based upon
the core HD1 (High Definition) synthesizer engine in the flagship OASYS,
it offered a smaller ROM, less processing power, less sample RAM,
fewer effects slots, and lower polyphony. What’s more, it didn’t support
the OASYS’s EXis (expansion instruments), so six of the OASYS sound
generators were missing. I concluded that the M3 was more a step up from
Korg’s Triton than a step down from their OASYS, and was not a
replacement for the company’s previous flagship.

But
now there’s the Kronos. Announced at the NAMM show in January and, at
the time of writing, still a few weeks away from distribution, its
specification looks much like a revised OASYS. And, although its sombre
styling is more reminiscent of an M1 or a Wavestation, its control panel
also looks suspiciously like that of an OASYS. So is this the
instrument to take Korg forward into the next decade?

The Core Of The Kronos

Korg
have written a dedicated Expansion Instrument (EXi) to make best use of
their two new families of grand piano samples. Despite being very
simple to use, the results can be outstanding.

Let’s be clear from the start: the core of the Kronos
is the core of the OASYS, and nowhere is this more apparent than in its
implementation of HD1. In the OASYS, HD1 drew upon 1505 multisamples
and 1388 drum samples, plus two expansion libraries: EXs1, which
included 229 multisamples and 1483 drum samples, and EXs2, which offered
10 concert grand piano multisamples, all of which resided on its 40GB
internal hard drive. Later, an optional upgrade (EXs3) added a further
700MB of brass and woodwind samples, although this could only be used if
you expanded the OASYS to its maximum 2GB of RAM.

In
the Kronos, HD1 is retained in full on its 30GB solid state drive
(SSD), with a core of 1505 multisamples and 1388 drum samples, plus
three expansion libraries, EXs1, EXs2 and EXs3, that comprise... well,
you get the picture. But in addition to this, it also includes, as
standard, no fewer than six further expansion libraries, EXs4 to EXs9,
comprising Vintage Keyboards, a second ROM expansion, two new piano
libraries, and two new drum libraries.

It’s not
possible to review HD1 in a ‘select some waveforms, mix them and then
send the results to the filter and amplifier’ fashion, because each
oscillator can be based upon PCMs, samples or wave sequences, each can
use up to eight velocity-crossfaded sources (the OASYS only offered
four) and the outputs from these can be modified and controlled by
a vast array of multi‑mode filters, LFOs and envelope generators,
multiple Alternate Modulation Sources, AMS Mixers, and more. Then
there’s the Vector Synthesis that lies at the heart of every Program,
allowing manual and enveloped control over dozens of voicing parameters,
and Drum Tracks (see below) that are integrated within each, to say
nothing of the KARMA algorithmic composition technology, which can be
used for anything from building simple arpeggios to complete tracks. It
can sound fantastic and, if I’m honest, I don’t think that anyone will
ever exhaust the possibilities of HD1, especially with the new EXs
libraries on board.

The EXs6 and EXs7 libraries
provide the samples for two new pianos, and these are so important to
Korg that the company have developed a new engine to make optimal use of
them. SGX1, which is one of eight expansion instruments in the Kronos,
offers eight velocity layers per note, with the natural piano noises —
damper thunk, case noises and so on — separated out for independent
control. What’s more, there’s no sample looping. No longer does
a realistic attack turn into a featureless loop when a key is held, and
each note now decays smoothly for as long as 30 seconds from its
beginning to its end.

Each of the two piano
libraries is sampled from a single instrument; EXs6 is a Steinway Model
D, while EXs7 is a Yamaha C7. The sampling is first‑rate for both, and
the noise layers add considerably to the illusion, both for the player
and the listener. However, rather than offer just two pianos based upon
these, the two sample families have been moulded into 32 preset
instruments that you can further customise using a dozen or so
parameters, and there’s also an option to choose one of two
soundfields: that which you would hear facing the keyboard as the
player, and that which you would hear in the audience with the piano
side‑on.

I prefer the latter, which has excellent ambience and is more
appropriate to anybody but the player anyway.

Physically Modelled Synths

Unlike
most workstation sequencers, the Kronos’s Track Data Map can show the
status of all 16 MIDI tracks, all 16 audio tracks and the Master track
simultaneously.

EP1: In contrast to the acoustic pianos, the
electro‑mechanical pianos generated by the new EP1 engine are based on
a resynthesis method that appears to be similar to the Structured
Adaptive Synthesis that powered Roland’s RD pianos in the late 1980s. In
this, parameters are derived from the pre‑analysis of samples, and
sounds are then rebuilt from these in real time when you play. But
despite the complex technology behind the scenes, EP1 is incredibly
simple to use. There are just three tabs of controls: the Basic page,
where you select which of six pianos (three Fender Rhodes and three
flavours of Wurlitzer) will form the basis of the sound; the Oscillator
page, where you adjust parameters such as the attack and release noise,
the hammer width, and so on; and the Panel/IFX/Amp page, which offers
controls almost identical to those of the original instruments, as well
as a selection of stomp‑box effects bearing names such as Small Phase
(recalls the Electro Harmonix Small Stone), Orange Phase (inspired by
the MXR Phase 90) and Vintage Chorus (provides a Roland CE1 Chorus
feel).

I love EP1. For example, playing the
Rhodes MkII through the Black Chorus (inspired by TC Electronic’s Stereo
Chorus/Flanger) is a joyful experience, and I doodled away an entire
evening on this sound alone while writing this review. My only criticism
of EP1 is the absence of Hohner Pianet and Clavinet models, so I called
Korg and asked the question. The response I received boiled down to,
“you’ve got to start somewhere”, which suggests that there could be
updates in the future.

AL1: First seen in the
OASYS, the AL1 virtual analogue synth seems to have become the poor
relation of all the original expansion instruments, perhaps because it
encapsulates everything that die‑hard analogue nutters hate about
virtual analogue. For one thing, it’s complex. Overflowing with morphing
oscillators, multi‑mode filters with 22 filter profiles, EGs with
selectable slope profiles, LFOs with nearly 200 waveform variations,
multiple AMS Mixers, and much more, it was never going to reveal its
secrets quickly or easily. What’s more, while Korg have done everything
possible to lay these facilities out clearly, it’s still a long way from
a knob‑twiddler’s preconceptions of how an analogue synth should be
programmed and controlled. Nonetheless, AL1 is a powerful synthesizer
capable of imitating many revered vintage synths, as well as creating
huge ranges of sounds unavailable in the heyday of analogue synthesis.
My advice is to persevere... the results are worth it.

STR1:
The STR1 Plucked String Synthesizer (which first appeared in the OASYS
v1.1 upgrade) is based on physical models of plucked and hammered
strings, so is ideal for synthesizing acoustic and electric guitars,
basses, bowed strings, harps, clavinets, harpsichords, clavichords,
sitars, and all manner of other stringed instruments. However, it’s not
limited to producing imitative sounds, and I particularly like the
results that one can obtain using unworldly facilities such as samples
or filtered noise as the ‘excitation’ source, as well as enharmonic
excitations and non‑linear string models.

STR1
contains a full complement of filters, EGs, LFOs and AMS Mixers, but
it’s more powerful than before because you can now use streamed audio as
one of its building blocks. In a different era, STR1 would have been
a powerful synth in its own right, but when integrated within Kronos and
used with its effects — to say nothing of being hooked up to some of
the KARMA picking and strumming algorithms — it takes on a life of its
own, allowing you to compose and play music in ways that you might find
almost impossible without it.

The
back panel of the 73‑note Kronos. On the left is an IEC port and
a power switch; in the middle a pair of USB A ports and a single USB B
socket; and at the right we find the bulk of the Kronos’s connectivity.
This includes a pair of quarter‑inch audio inputs with accompanying trim
pots and mic/line buttons, four individual outputs and a stereo main
output on quarter‑inch jack sockets, MIDI In, Out and Thru ports, S/PDIF
I/O and three footswitch sockets.

MOD7: Also born in the OASYS, MOD7 was released as
part of its final upgrade in 2008. It was — and remains — a modular
monster that combines FM synthesis with sample playback and sample
mangling, waveshaping, and conventional subtractive synthesis. I suspect
that few if any players have ever fully gotten to grips with it (myself
included) and that’s a shame because, although the learning curve is
a bit steep, MOD7 can produce a fabulous array of sounds. Sure, keeping
track of patchable FM algorithms is a bit mind‑bending, but it can be
done and, if you want to experiment further, you can use the PCMs from
the HD1 engine or even samples and streamed audio as FM operators, which
leads to all manner of weird and wonderful outcomes.

MOD7
is also able to load Yamaha DX7 SysEx libraries. This means that
a single EXi Program, which can support two MOD7 sounds, is equivalent
to a hugely enhanced DX1 (the monster of the DX range), and you can
layer multiple Programs in a Combi to emulate all eight TF1 modules in
the mighty TX816, although with significantly reduced polyphony.
I loaded the first four TX816 factory SysEx libraries from a USB memory
stick and then layered the string and English Horn patches from the
first four TF1s into a single Kronos Combi. Although this dragged the
polyphony down to just five notes, the results were fabulous. You have
NEVER heard FM sound so good, with such clarity and presence, and with
so little accompanying noise. If I wasn’t a level‑headed sort of person,
I would be tempted to buy a Kronos for this alone. Bravo, Korg!

Vintage Synthesis

Two
new expansion (EXs) PCM libraries provide the basis of myriad drum kits
and percussion instruments, all of which can be further sculpted using
the full power of the HD1 synth engine and the effects.

The original Korg Legacy Collection contained ‘soft’
implementations of three of Korg’s famous synths — the MS20, the Polysix
and the Wavestation. So, given that much Wavestation technology already
existed in HD1 synthesis, it wasn’t a huge surprise when the MS20EX and
PolysixEX became available as an OASYS upgrade.

Of
course, Korg couldn’t leave things alone and, when rewriting the MS20EX
plug‑in as an EXi, they extended its facilities, adding new patch
points, more LFOs, extra contour generators, new AMS Mixers, new audio
inputs, vector synthesis, and more. Clearly, the MS20EX within OASYS was
not just a virtual MS20, although it could sound like one. Happily, the
MS20EX in the Kronos retains all of these extras in an improved GUI
that allows you to understand and control it despite the apparent
complexity on offer.

Likewise, the PolysixEX can
be a remarkable synth: simple, direct and with great warmth. Whether it
sounds identical with the original Polysix is no longer the issue (it
can, by the way) because, once you’ve started throwing all of the
Kronos’s additional capabilities at it, emulating the original becomes
just a tiny subset of what you might ask it to do.

But
why include the MS20EX and PolysixEX in the Kronos at all? After all,
the AL1 virtual analogue can do everything the PolysixEX can, and much
of what the MS20EX can. The answer is threefold. Firstly, their
characters are markedly different. Secondly, the simplicity of the
PolysixEX begs even the most nervous programmer to create new sounds,
while the patchability of the MS20EX encourages you to try things that
you would never attempt using a modulation matrix. Thirdly, the low
processor load of PolysixEX makes it the synth of choice if you want to
conserve resources for elsewhere.

Finally, we
come to the CX3, which Korg have been developing since the late 1970s
when the original CX3 and BX3 organs were, by common consent, the best
Hammond clones of the analogue era. More recently, the company released
two digital equivalents, also called the CX3 and BX3, and an enhanced
version of these appeared in the OASYS, where it offered all manner of
enhancements. This version — which, in my opinion, remains the best and
most authentic sounding of the so‑called ‘clonewheel’ organs — has now
made its way into the Kronos. If you’re happy to use sliders as
drawbars, you’ll not need anything else for your Hammond sounds and
performances. It seems almost criminal to dismiss CX3 so briefly, but
there really is nothing more to say!

Combining Sounds, Sequencing, Effects & Sampling

No
matter which synth engine (or engines) you choose, Programs in the
Kronos can be quite complex affairs, comprising two patches inside
a common wrapper that adds vector synthesis, step sequencing, additional
modulation, KARMA 2 (see box above), and of course the full power of
the Kronos’s effects section. In HD1, this is achieved by creating two
independent oscillator/filter/amplifier patches (Double mode), but when
you’re using EXis you can mix two patches from whichever engines you
choose. But this isn’t the limit of the Kronos’s Program architecture,
because each Program can also include a Drum Track. Introduced on the
M3, a Drum Track comprises a kit and a rhythm, each of which can be
selected from the hundreds on offer. So if you like to write music on
the piano and you fancy a bit of salsa today, attach a Latin kit and an
appropriate rhythm to your piano of choice, and start composing. As if
this were not enough, the Kronos also offers Korg’s usual Combi mode,
which allows you to create splits, layers and multitimbral setups of up
to 16 Programs comprising a maximum of 32 sounds.

The
new EP1 electric piano module provides a simple control panel based
upon the original instruments, as well as a selection of appropriate
stomp boxes to enhance the sound. This is a Fender Rhodes MkI played
through a Small Stone phaser.

Of course, the Kronos is a fully‑fledged workstation,
and I was delighted to find that its sequencer is based on the full
OASYS system, with all 16 MIDI tracks or all 16 audio tracks
simultaneously visible. What’s more, the upgrade to 480ppqn timing
resolution introduced on the M3 has been retained, and the maximum audio
resolution has been increased from 16‑bit to 24‑bit. Maybe the Kronos
doesn’t quite substitute for a dedicated computer-based DAW, but it’s
sufficient to compose, arrange and produce music to professional
standards if you’re prepared to work at it. In part, this is because the
effects structure in the Kronos has also reverted to that of the OASYS
rather than the Triton‑esque system found in the M3. So, in addition to
any dedicated effects within the sound generators themselves, the full
complement of 12 assignable, routable, stereo, insert effects slots are
available, together with dual Master effects and dual Total effects,
plus up to 32 track EQs. Likewise, the full complement of 185 effects
algorithms is retained, together with the ability to store up to 32
presets per effect module. While not truly multitimbral (which would
require independent effects buses for each Program in a Combi or
Sequence setup), this is still very powerful.

The
Kronos’s sampler (which recognizes Korg, Akai and Soundfont formats as
well as WAV and AIFF files) is a hybrid of that in the OASYS and some
improvements introduced on the M3. It uses the free RAM inside the
workstation itself, which you might imagine provides lots of room for
your own sounds, but that it isn’t necessarily the case. As shipped, the
Kronos comes with 2GB of RAM, but only 148MB is free when all the
factory EXs libraries are loaded, and this equates to less than 14
minutes of stereo sampling. Happily, you can now load or sample directly
to the SSD in either 16‑bit or 24‑bit WAV format, but the resulting
files still need to fit into RAM if you want to use them as the basis of
sampled sounds or in place of PCMs in Programs and drum kits.

Although
it’s not the simplest to use, there’s much to like about this sampler.
My favourite facility is ‘In Track’ sampling, which allows you to record
audio, then converts it into a multisample, saves it in a Program,
loads the Program into a sequencer slot, and then inserts a note into
the sequence at the point at which you started sampling. I’m also
grateful for ‘Convert MS to Program’, which does what the name implies,
and the ability to resample the sound being generated while playing, or
playing back sequences. Another feature that’s worthy of mention is its
ability to auto‑load samples into RAM at start‑up. My OASYS sits with
its Mellotron Programs lying silent until I remember that I have to load
the samples from the drive. Now I no longer need to do so. (Well,
doubly so, because there are already some excellent Mellotron Programs
based upon the Vintage Keyboards library.)

The
Kronos lacks an internal CD drive, which may be inconvenient for owners
of large sample libraries, but you can use an external USB CD/DVD player
to load samples from discs. Unfortunately, I don’t own one of these, so
I transferred some files from my Mac to a USB memory stick that already
held a mixture of samples, JPEGs, and even Powerpoint presentations.
The Kronos recognised everything, ignored the inappropriate stuff and
was able to load the audio without hiccups. Once loaded, I saved my
audio and samples to the SSD, so there was no need to carry any external
devices around. Consequently, my only significant gripe is that,
despite a long‑standing Korg promise to load Roland‑format samples, the
Kronos remains unable to do so. Actually, that’s not true... I have
a second gripe. The Kronos sampler/recorder retains the 48kHz sample
rate from the OASYS and M3, which means that you can’t burn audio
directly to CD; it has to go through an intermediate sample‑rate
conversion. The system does this for you automatically, but I’d much
rather it wasn’t necessary.

In Use

The
enhanced patch panel of the MS20EX synthesiser allows you to do
everything that you could on the original synth, and much more. Unlike
a modulation matrix, this encourages you to try hooking things up in new
and interesting ways.

So those are the nuts and bolts of the Kronos,
although it has been impossible to do more than scratch the surface
here. The specification in its preliminary manual runs to 2741 words,
which is almost half the length of this review, so if I’ve missed out an
important function here or skimmed over significant details there, it’s
nothing more than another indication of the number and depth of the
facilities on offer. And even when you understand each section in
isolation, it still doesn’t tell you what it’s like to use the Kronos
and the disparate ways there are of using it. So here are a few
observations that I hope will give you some flavour of what it’s like to
program and play it.

Let’s start with the
control panel. Apart from the loss of the luxury hardware and sexy
cosmetics, the major difference between the Kronos and the OASYS is that
the new model’s screen is significantly smaller and mounted flush with
the panel. This isn’t a problem, but it’s a shame, because synths with
angled screens tend to be easier to use. A second look also reveals that
the OASYS’s velocity‑sensitive pads have gone. Nonetheless, it’s clear
that the two panels are designed to do the same job, and I found it
effortless to switch from one to the other.

Elsewhere,
there are equally significant hardware differences. The omission of the
CD drive is understandable, but then there’s the reduction from 10
outputs to six (which may be a limitation for players outputting
multiple Programs simultaneously to an external DAW or live‑sound desk)
and the loss of two of the OASYS’s mic/line inputs, as well as the XLR
sockets for the two that remain. Likewise, two of the OASYS’s USB ports
have gone, as has its ADAT expansion capability, but I’m not concerned
by these omissions. The Kronos’s two Type A and single Type B USB ports,
the latter of which allows audio streaming and MIDI connection to
external computers and other devices, are a better choice for the modern
studio.

Turning to the software, the Kronos is
almost identical to its predecessor. Even the factory sounds in each of
the common synth engines are largely the same, with not just the same
controls on all of the same pages, but the same values for all of the
controls, and the same control highlighted when you access each page. Nevertheless, the Kronos offers a number of new features that in some
ways make it an even better instrument than the OASYS, particularly for
on‑stage use. Most important in this regard are the Set Lists. There are
128 of these, each of which can hold up to 128 items (Programs, Combis
or Songs) that you can select by hand or step through using
a footswitch. Not just a good way of organising sounds, the lists offer
space for comments or lyrics, and allow you to determine how one sound
will be curtailed when you select the next. Discovering this at the
start of the review made me wonder, will the Kronos continue to play
held notes correctly — including all of their effects — when you change
to the next Program or Combi? Yes, it will. This is something that the
OASYS cannot do, and it’s an important improvement.

But
for most people, it’s the combination of immediacy of use, the range
and quality of the sound generation and effects, and the quality of the
sampling, recording and sequencing that defines a workstation. So how
does the Kronos score on these points?

AL1
is a deep, complex and sometimes daunting ‘virtual analogue’
synthesizer, but it’s worth getting to know because the range of options
available make it more flexible and more capable than most hardware VA
synths or plug‑ins.

Let’s start with immediacy. There’s a die‑hard school
of analogue synthesists who demand knobs for every function, and the
Kronos is not for them. But for the rest of us, its combination of
a touchscreen and a panel with nearly 100 buttons, knobs and faders —
not to mention two joysticks and a ribbon controller — is more than
adequate. Having owned an OASYS for six years, I have a head start on
most people but, for all its apparent complexity, the Kronos is not
difficult to grasp, and most new owners should be able to get up to
speed without too much hassle.

What about the
range and quality of the sounds available? Is the Kronos a powerful VA
synth? Yes, three times over. Is it a state‑of‑the‑art piano? Again,
yes. Is it a superb electro‑mechanical piano? Yes. An unsurpassed
clonewheel organ? Yes. A powerful FM synth? Yes. An even more powerful
PCM‑based synth? Again, yes... and that’s a particularly interesting
aspect of the Kronos. Korg have often led the way in developing new
sounds and textures, but have equally often fallen short in areas such
as orchestral sounds. With the addition of the Kronos’s new EXs
libraries, I suspect that the manufacturers whose orchestral sounds have
been the de facto standards for 20 years or more may now have more
competition.

So that, then, leaves facilities
such as sampling, audio recording, MIDI sequencing, and composition
tools such as KARMA and Drum Tracks. I doubt that anyone has ever fully
plumbed these facilities in the OASYS and M3, and I suspect that there’s
enough here to keep you experimenting, playing and composing until
someone develops a USB cable that you can plug directly into your brain.
That’s not to say that the Kronos does everything. For example, there
are facilities in the Roland V‑Synth XT that would be welcome additions
on other manufacturers’ flagships. But if I were ever to be stuck on
that mythical desert island, a Kronos 88, a decent sound system and
a working 13A mains socket would be more than enough to keep me occupied
until Claudia Schiffer hove into view on her otherwise crewless 80-foot
yacht.

Of course, the Kronos isn’t perfect.
I’ve mentioned a few issues above, and there are two others worth
mentioning. Firstly, it takes a long time to boot — two minutes 15
seconds for the review unit — which would be embarrassing if there were
a power glitch that required a restart on stage. Secondly, I found the
noise from its motherboard fan a bit annoying, so I could see myself
switching it off for critical studio listening. But these complaints
aside, it’s hard not to eulogise about the sounds and facilities on
offer. And finally, I need to compliment Korg on the quality of the
pre‑production software in the review unit. Despite being warned that it
might have a few minor issues that would be resolved before release, it
didn’t do anything untoward at any time during the review. You can’t
say that about some manufacturers’ products three months after release,
let alone three months before!

Conclusions

The
Kronos offers plenty of opportunity for hands‑on control, providing two
joysticks, a ribbon controller, a selection of knobs and faders,
a generous array of buttons and, of course, the central touchscreen.

We keyboard players are a funny lot, and never was
this more obvious than when Korg allowed the first sounds from the
Kronos to trickle out into the world. But what was it? Based on what
they heard, enthusiasts speculated that it was an updated Wavestation,
a new Karma, some form of vector synth, a hardware‑based Legacy
Collection, and even a sampler/resynthesizer. Another popular idea was
that it would be an updated MS20 with MIDI, memories and advanced
effects, and one person even went so far as to state that this would be
the only product that anybody would ever want from Korg. We now know
that they were all correct; well, all except the MS20 extremists. So,
when it was revealed, did the synth aficionados of the world cheer? No.
Having been presented with something that has the potential to
be the most flexible sound source and music-production keyboard yet
developed, many greeted it with caution. But they’re the ones who are
going to miss out, and here’s why...

Throughout
this review I have been comparing the Kronos to the OASYS, which I am
able to do because, having reviewed it in 2005, I bought one. And, as
far as I am concerned, it remains the sexiest, best sounding and most
desirable workstation yet developed. But today, the Kronos — while
foregoing the gorgeous and unusual OASYS physical design — retains all
the audio quality of the OASYS. It also offers the expanded PCM
libraries for the HD1 engine, the excellent SGX1 pianos, the fabulous
EP1 electric piano engine, set lists, improved audio handling, and more.
In other words, it’s more flexible and in many respects more powerful
than the OASYS. Yet it no longer occupies the stratosphere of synth
prices; indeed, it costs little more than its (supposed) competition.
So while there’s nothing surprising about the Kronos — it’s an
enhancement of existing technology — I’m impressed. I mean... really
impressed. I need to lie down for a while. 0

Alternatives

With
all due respect to some excellent workstations from other manufacturers
there is, as far as I am aware, no direct equivalent to the Kronos. The
best of the rest are, for me, the Roland Fantom G7 and the Kurzweil
PC3x, both of which can also sound superb. But while these offer
a number of similar facilities, neither offers the range of synthesis
engines, nor the composition tools, nor the audio integration of the
Kronos, in which the traditional dividing lines that separate PCM‑based
synthesis, physical modelling synthesis, sampling, audio recording, and
audio streaming have become so blurred as to be interchangeable for many
purposes.

Of course, you might contend that
a PC‑based system such as Open Labs’ Neko — or even a powerful PC with
appropriate host software and plug‑ins — allows you to combine multiple
synthesis engines and sampling, as well as audio and MIDI sequencing.
But this again lacks the integration of the Kronos, and a Mac or a PC
(whether housed in a conventional case or with a five‑octave keyboard
glued on the front) is not the same as a dedicated keyboard workstation
whose real‑time performance is assured, even when everything is running
flat out.

Maximum Polyphony

There
has been much speculation regarding the maximum polyphony of the Kronos
and how this compares with the OASYS. In general, the Kronos manages
slightly lower polyphony, but not by huge amounts. For example, HD1
polyphony on the Kronos is 140 notes and on the OASYS 172, while the
AL1 synth figures are 80 and 96 respectively and those for MOD7 are the
same, at 52. The Kronos’s CX3 synth actually offers more polyphony, at
200 notes compared to the OASYS’s 172. The published figures do not tell
the whole story, because the OASYS is affected by the use of
power‑hungry effects, whereas Korg claim the Kronos is less susceptible
to this. Note that the Kronos distributes its resources as best it can,
so if half its processing power is being used by one of the engines,
only half will be available for the others, and the polyphony offered by
each will be reduced accordingly.

Kronos Keyboards

The
Kronos will come in three flavours. The first will be the 61‑note,
semi‑weighted version reviewed here. The flagship of the range will be
an 88‑note version that will use the excellent RH3 keyboard already used
in the M3 and the SV1, so if you’re planning to use the Kronos as
a stage piano, this will probably be the one for you. The model in the
middle will use the truncated, 73‑note RH3 keyboard first seen on the
smaller of the two SV1s. This is great for electro‑mechanical pianos,
but a fully‑weighted action is not ideal for playing organs or synth
solos. Given that the middle of the range has traditionally
been a 76‑note, semi‑weighted model, Korg have either had great
foresight or have been a bit misguided in bucking the trend. Time will
tell.

KARMA 2 Explained

The
simplest way to describe KARMA 2 is as a complex arpeggiator that,
instead of playing static sequences of notes, generates quasi‑random
elements to emulate what a human player might do when presented with the
need to play a similar phrase or pattern. With eight scenes per
Program, a KARMA module can create anything from simple arpeggios to
complex performances. When used within a Combi, up to four modules can
be applied, to create anything from evolving soundscapes to
auto-accompaniments of whole bands and orchestras.

KARMA
2 generates its effects using a set of algorithms called Generated
Effects (or GEs). There are 2048 preset GEs in the Kronos, and space for
another 1536 user‑defined ones. If you can get past the initial
hurdles, you may never stop finding things to do with them.

Guts Of The Kronos

The
Kronos is, as the OASYS was before it, essentially a PC in
a keyboard‑shaped box. Rather than using the Core processor (the direct
descendant of the P4 used in the OASYS), Korg have adopted the Intel
Atom for the Kronos. Although this choice has been criticised elsewhere,
I think it’s an astute one, because the Atom is small, uses less power
than a Core, runs cooler, and is less expensive. Sure, for any given
clock rate it’s less powerful, too, but since Korg have avoided the
power-sucking monster that is Windows and run optimised code in a Linux
environment, the swings outweigh the roundabouts, both in terms of price
and of performance.

Kronos Upgrades

The
Kronos is highly upgradable. Installing any forthcoming EXs libraries
should be a doddle, and new synth engines could also appear, should Korg
decide to develop them. As for the hardware, the provision of USB means
that you can add external devices to extend its functionality, and
increasing the internal memory should also be possible. There have been
no announcements regarding expansion as yet, but I can’t believe that
Korg would be unaware of users’ interest in this, especially where the
issue of PCM and sample RAM is concerned.

OASYS — RIP?

Korg
appear to have been careful to avoid calling the Kronos the OASYS MkII,
which would have been just as appropriate. I suspect that there is
a commercial reason for this. If they had done so, it would have been
reasonable for OASYS owners to expect some or all of the Kronos’s new
libraries and facilities to be made available as upgrades. By divorcing
one from the other, the company are, in effect, saying, “How can we put
Kronos inside OASYS? They are different products.” As an OASYS owner,
I hope I’m proved wrong.